A High School Story
by ahsoka1996
Summary: Ahsoka Tano is the new girl in school.
1. Chapter 1: First day

_**This is a test run of something I've had in the works for a long time.**_

 _ **Also, a big shout out to norik956 for letting me use Ahsoka's family from Tale of a Togruta.**_

 _ **Let me know what you think.**_

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Ahsoka Tano stood in front of the school, her dad, Haymish Tano, stood beside her.

"Are you alright?" he asked, placing an arm around her shoulders.

Ahsoka nodded quickly. "Yeah, I'm fine," she said. "See you tonight." She squared her shoulders and moved forward. When she reached the front door she turned and waved to her dad, who waved back, before entering the school.

The first thing to hit her was the level of noise. On the outside J. Temple High looked to be a quiet and peaceful place, but when one went inside they were greeted by something totally different.

Ahsoka had come from a small town who's high school had only 30 students. Her family had lived on a farm and her father had worked for a small business. Unfortunately the business had declared bankruptcy and closed down, causing many people, including Haymish, to lose their jobs, forcing them to leave the little town in search of work.

Ahsoka was shorter than the average teenager, at sixteen she was still an even 5' 3" tall, causing her to be the focal point for a lot of teasing. Because of this she would try to draw attention away from her height by altering her outward appearance and dyeing blue streaks into her natural blond hair. She wore a brown tunic that came down to her thighs, one that left part of her back exposed, gray leggings that had diamonds cut out of the sides along its length and brown fingerless gloves. She always wore a headband that she had made herself and a string of beads that she wore behind her right ear.

The noise was overwhelming. Ahsoka was used to the noise of her old high school with a small student population, not this school with a student population of 300. She looked at the mass of students before her and, not for the first time in her life, didn't know what to do.

"Excuse me, are you Ahsoka Tano?" someone asked from behind her. She turned and saw a woman standing there. She was really tall and looked to be from India, the bindi she wore was a dead giveaway, but instead of a sari she wore professional attire, complete with a women's tan suit jacket, a white undershirt, and a skirt that came to her knees. Further inspection showed that her height came from the heels she wore. Her skin was light brown with her dark brown hair pulled back into a neat ponytail and she wore very little makeup on her face, not that she needed any because she was one of the most beautiful women she'd ever seen, save for her mother.

"Yes, I'm Ahsoka Tano," she said in a small voice. The woman smiled.

"All the noise and hubbub can be a little overwhelming at first, but you'll get used to it with time," she said warmly. "I'm Shaak Ti, the English teacher here at J. Temple High, if you'll follow me I will take you to the principal's office to get your class schedule."

The two of them made their way through the bustling crowds of students and Ahsoka could feel the stares some of them gave her, but she was used to them so she didn't react. At one point the crowds of students became so dense that they were forced to stop, Ahsoka was about to stop there and wait for the path to clear, but Ms. Ti had other ideas.

She walked up to a male student with close cut bleach blond hair and briefly spoke to him, he nodded coming to stand by her and, after taking a deep breath, yelled out above the noise.

"Attention everyone! Please move to either side of the hall for Ms. Ti!" He shouted out.

The hall instantly became silent and the students parted before them. Ms. Ti looked over at the student. "Thank you, Rex, that will be all," she said. Rex nodded and moved away, but Ahsoka's eyes continued to follow him.

"Who was that?" Ahsoka asked.

"That was Rex Skirata, one of Kal Skirata's boys, a good student and leader, but quiet, so when he speaks people listen," she said.

Ahsoka nodded and was about to move on when their eyes met. His were a warm honey-brown color and she could see a sense of humor in them but also a sense of experience, he'd obviously been through a lot in his life. Ahsoka pulled her eyes away quickly, blushing slightly.

They made it to the principal's office without further incident and Ms. Ti knocked lightly on the door.

"Enter," an elderly voice called out. Ahsoka looked at Ms. Ti strangely but the woman just smiled before opening the door and leading her into the room. The first thing Ahsoka noticed was all the plants, the room was overflowing with them. There were vines hanging down the bookshelves creating a bit of a barrier against unwanted guests, and a small Bonsai tree sat atop the desk, neatly trimmed and healthy. There were two people already in the room.

"Principal Yoda, this is our new student Ahsoka Tano," Ms. Ti said. The man sitting behind the desk was an eldery Japanese man with a neatly combed white mullet and was wearing a tan suit with a green undershirt, the name card on his desk reading Principal Yoda. The other person in the room was a tall bald black man with a scowl on his face.

"Ms. Ti, we are in a meeting…" the man began, but was stopped by Principal Yoda.

"Wish to meet this new student, I do," he said, gesturing for Ahsoka and Ms. Ti to have a seat.

"Principal Yoda and Vice-Principal Mace Windu, we are, Ahsoka Tano, your name is?" he asked, chuckling to himself.

Ahsoka nodded. "Yes, Sir," she said.

"Here to pick up your class schedule, you are?" He asked and Ahsoka nodded again.

"Very well, Ms. Ti, in that filing cabinet they are, hurry along to classes you should," Principal Yoda said. Ms. Ti nodded and opened the filing cabinet he had indicated. All the while Vice-Principal Windu stared at her with suspicion, making Ahsoka uncomfortable.

"Here it is," Ms. Ti said. "Come, Ahsoka, let's get you to your first class."

Ahsoka stood and followed her out of the room.

Mr. Windu grunted to himself. "She looks like she'll be trouble," he said out loud.

"The benefit of the doubt, we should give everyone," Principal Yoda chastised gently only receiving a grunt in response.

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 _ **Hope you liked the first chapter, please read and review.**_

 _ **If anyone has ideas for this story I'd be happy to hear them.**_


	2. Chapter 2: Barriss

"Your first class will be in History and Political Science," Ms. Ti said, handing Ahsoka a sheet of paper. "It will begin in fifteen minutes, that will allow you enough time to find your locker, any questions?" Ms. Ti asked. Ahsoka shook her head and smiled.

"I think I'll be alright, thanks for your help," she said.

Ms. Ti smiled back. "Very well, come find me if you need anything," she said and moved off into the crowd of students. Ahsoka watched her go before looking at the paper in her hands. Her first objective was to find her locker, which was numbered 131. She moved among the students, excusing herself each time she bumped into one. At one point she ran into a group of girls and tried to apologize.

"I'm so sorry," she said.

"Eww! I've been touched by a lowlife!" The girl exclaimed. Ahsoka looked at her strangely.

"Yeah, watch where you're going, lowlife," another girl said. The rest of the girls started laughing and Ahsoka moved away quickly, it wasn't the name that bothered her, it was how the girls acted.

"You should be more careful, that was Jana Starr, she and her satellites come from some of the more well off families in this city," someone next to her said. Ahsoka turned and saw a girl standing next to her. She had darker, almost olive skin and beautiful dark brown hair that came down to her shoulders and gently curled outward at the ends, and she had a fair amount of freckles over her nose and across her cheeks that formed a beautiful and unusual pattern.

"I'm Barriss Offee, what's your name?" She asked.

"I'm Ahsoka Tano," Ahsoka replied.

"Not from around here, are you?" Barriss asked.

Ahsoka shook her head. "No, my family just moved here from Shili, Montana, my dad came here for a new job," Ahsoka said.

"Hmm, interesting, do you need help finding your locker?" Barriss asked.

Ahsoka was a little taken aback. "How did you…" she began but was cut off by a wave from Barriss.

"Just a wild guess, you're new here and you looked a little lost, let me see your schedule," Barriss said and Ahsoka handed her the paper. Barriss looked at it for a few minutes before speaking.

"What luck, our lockers are right next to each other, and it also looks as if we share most of the classes too," Barris said with a smile. She quickly led Ahsoka to their lockers and showed her how to open hers because at Ahsoka's old high school they used old fashioned padlocks with keys.

"Looking at your schedule it appears as if your first class is History and Political Science," Barriss said.

"It's starting in five minutes so we should get going," Barriss said. She turned and the two of them made their way to the class. When they entered they were greeted by a mostly full classroom. A tall reddish blond haired man with a full beard came towards them.

"Good morning Barriss," he said.

"Good morning Mr. Kenobi," Barriss replied.

"Who is this?" He asked.

"This is the new student, Ahsoka Tano.

"Delightful to meet you, my dear," Mr. Kenobi said with a smile and held out his hand. Ahsoka shook it.

"Nice to meet you too, Sir," she said. He wasn't a very impressive looking man, he wore a tan suit, like everyone else around here, Ahsoka thought, and had his hair and beard neatly trimmed and combed.

Mr. Kenobi turned to the classroom. "Alright, everyone, it's time to begin," he said and immediately everyone took their seats.

"Now, before we begin today's lesson I'd like to introduce a new student," he said gesturing to Ahsoka, who was still standing next to Barris.

"This is Ahsoka Tano and I want all of you to make her feel welcome here," he said before turning to her. "Why don't you tell us a little about yourself, Ahsoka."

She stepped forward a little reluctantly, she didn't like being the center of attention.

"Um, I'm Ahsoka Tano and I'm from a small town in Montana called Shili," she paused when she heard giggling, she turned her head and saw Jana Starr with one of her satellites. The two of them were giggling and pointing to her outfit and hair. Mr. Kenobi sensed her nervousness and reprimanded the two girls, allowing Ahsoka to continue.

"I have two older sisters and will soon be an older sister myself, I like riding my horse and writing in my spare time," she finished.

"That's wonderful, Ahsoka, you may take any of the empty desks," Mr. Kenobi said.

Ahsoka nodded and followed Barriss to her desk before sitting in the next one over.

"Now, class, we will be picking up where we left off during the French Revolution…" Mr. Kenobi began and the classroom was filled with the sound of students turning pages.

Ahsoka quickly found the spot and looked around at the other students. On her right sat Barriss and on her left sat a familiar student who's name she had a little trouble remembering.

Was it Roger or Ronald… Rex, that's it, she thought to herself. His bleach blond hair was unmistakable. He seemed engrossed in Mr. Kenobi's lecture and paid little attention to the world around him… or so it seemed.

Ahsoka heard something behind her and, turning just enough to see, caught a glimpse of two boys, probably twins because of how alike they looked, sitting directly behind her and Rex. The one with what appeared to be the number "5" marked on his left temple was loading a paper tube with paper pellets, the other boy glared at him. The boy with the mark raised the tube to his lips and blew softly and the tiny projectile launched out of the tube and hit the back of Rex's neck. Rex didn't move and the boy huffed in annoyance, he loaded the tube and again fired, still no reaction. He launched two more pellets at Rex and gave up, it was no fun if you didn't get a reaction.

The class finished and everyone headed to their lockers before going to the cafeteria for lunch. Ahsoka and Barriss stashed their books in their lockers and were about to follow to crowd when the sound of a body hitting a locker resounded throughout the halls.

The girls whipped around and Ahsoka saw that Rex had thrown the boy with the mark up against one of the lockers.

"Quit trying to distract me during class," Rex growled

"Oh, come on, Rex, it was only a little fun," the boy said.

"Fives, we come here to learn, not to fool around during classes," Rex said harshly. "Do you want me to tell Kal?"

The boy Ahsoka now knew as Fives paled a bit. "You're not going to tell him, are you?" he asked in a worried tone.

"I won't if you get your act together, I shouldn't have to rely on Echo to let me know when you're misbehaving," Rex said and Fives cast a betrayed look at the other boy known as Echo.

"Ahsoka, come on, I'm starving," Barriss said tugging on Ahsoka's arm.

Ahsoka followed Barriss, casting one more glance back at the boys and she was startled to find Rex staring at her, almost as if he knew she had been eavesdropping. She blushed and quickly followed Barriss towards the cafeteria.

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 ** _Please read and review, suggestions for the plot are welcome._**


	3. Chapter 3: Making Friends

_**Sorry this took so long to update.**_

 _ **Me- Glad that you're enjoying it. :)**_

 _ **Legoryan4579- Don't worry, they'll show up sooner or later.**_

 _ **TheGreatGodzilla- They are a little harder to fit into this world, but I'll do my best.**_

 _ **Enjoy**_

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Ahsoka and Barriss made it to the cafeteria without incident and moved into the food line. They got their lunch and made their way over to a table in the corner of the room. On the way there they passed by a table filled with familiar faces.

"Well look who it is," Jana Starr said. "It's the Lowlife and Freckle Face." The rest of the girls at the table started laughing. Ahsoka payed them no mind, she was used to being teased, but Barriss visibly bristled, her cheeks flushing red.

Ahsoka grabbed her arm and they continued to the table they had selected.

"Aren't you bothered by them?" Barriss said. "You're new here and on the first day they've started calling you names."

"Bullying and teasing has never really bothered me, there is no offense given where none is taken," Ahsoka said, using the phrase her mother had taught her.

"Huh?" Barriss said, confusion on her face.

"What that means is that if you don't take offense in what someone is saying they can take no pleasure in knowing they have offended you, my mother taught it to me," Ahsoka said, digging in to her meatloaf.

"Didn't you get a salad? Don't you know that that is filled with carbs? You won't be able to keep that body of yours eating that," Barriss said as she ate her own food, a salad.

"I'm allergic to most vegetables and could have a serious reaction if I ingest them, besides, I can burn this off easily…" Ahsoka was saying when someone placed a tray across from her. She looked up a recognized the boy from class, the one Rex had been beating on.

"Hi, Barriss, hope you don't mind me joining you two," he said and sat down before either of them could protest. He turned and waved at someone else before turning back to the two girls, speaking as he ate his food.

"My name's Fives, what's yours?" He asked.

"Ahsoka," Ahsoka replied somewhat warily.

A moment later the boy who looked like Fives, Echo was his name, came walking up, Rex wasn't far behind.

"May we sit here?" Echo asked and Barriss nodded.

"Knock yourself out," she said.

Echo and Rex both sat down next to Fives and Echo wacked him over the head.

"You should know better than to just sit down without permission!" Echo said. Fives rubbed his head where Echo had hit him, looking wounded.

"I apologize for my brother, he can be an idiot sometimes," Echo said, holding out a hand. "Hi, my name is Echo, and this is my twin brother Fives and our older brother Rex."

"I'm Ahsoka Tano, nice to meet you," she said, shaking his hand.

"So, you're from Montana?" Echo asked.

"Shili specifically, I doubt you would know where it is since it's so out of the way," Ahsoka said.

"It would be around three hundred miles east of Corrie," Echo said without hesitation.

Ahsoka just stared at him, and Fives started laughing.

"How did you…?" She began and Rex cut in.

"Echo knows just about everything one could possibly know, he's always studying, that's why he gets high grades and Fives doesn't," Rex said, he didn't smile but everyone knew he was joking, except Fives.

"Hey!" Fives exclaimed indignantly.

"You like to study?" Ahsoka aksed, perking up slightly.

Echo nodded. "You?" he asked, and Ahsoka nodded too.

"Hey, Rex," a voice called over. Rex turned and Ahsoka saw a tall boy with light brown hair and blue eyes approaching their table, his right hand was covered in a black glove and the other was bare.

"What's up?" he asked and plopped down next to Rex.

"Nothing much, just talking," Rex said.

The boy held out his ungloved hand to Ahsoka. "Hi, I'm Anakin Skywalker, what's your name?" He asked.

He was a good looking boy by most people's standards, but most of his clothes were dark browns and blacks and looked worn, almost as if he couldn't afford newer ones.

"Ahsoka Tano," she replied and shook the offered hand.

"I've never seen you around before, are you new here?" Anakin asked, grabbing a piece of fruit from Rex's plate and popping it in his mouth.

Ahsoka nodded. "Just moved here from Montana," she said.

The six of them talked for the rest of lunch, Echo and Ahsoka had exchanged emails so they could study more together in the future, before heading back to classes.

"Alright, you are now officially awesome," Barriss said.

"Why is that?" Ahsoka asked. The two of them were on their way to their final class with Mr. Fisto, the P.E. coach.

Barriss looked at her like she was asking a crazy question, which, in a way, she was.

"Why?! You've only been here a day and already you've shrugged off the nickname Jana and her satellites have dubbed you, you've got a good looking guy's email, and you've made a good impression on Jana Starr's crush," Barriss said.

Ahsoka whipped her head around. "Wait a minute, Anakin Skywalker is Jana's crush?!" Ahsoka asked.

Barriss nodded. "She's been crushing on him for months now, but I think it's only because of his bad boy look," she said.

They walked into the girls locker room and changed into their gym clothes before heading out to join the lineup in the center of the gym.

Mr Fisto walked in and approached the line of students.

After going through his lecture on teamwork, which apparently happened everyday in P.E. according to Barriss, he announced that they would be playing dodge ball.

A chorus of groans and cheers filled the gym, but halted the moment Mr. Fisto raised his hand for silence.

"Today, though, we will be trying something different," he said. This time more groans than cheers echoed through the room. Mr. Fisto was well known for adding challenges to the games they played.

"We will divide into two teams as usual, but everyone will be tied to another student as an extra challenge, your goal is to work as a team to survive against the opposite team," He said holding up some ribbons.

He called out the names of the students for each team and then the students who would be paired together, then he tied them around the wrists with the ribbon.

The students on Ahsoka's team were Barriss Offee, Echo and Fives Skirata, Rex Skirata, a couple of Jana's satellites, and several other students that Ahsoka didn't know.

On the opposite team was Anakin Skywalker, Jana Starr and several of her satellites, and more students that Ahsoka didn't know.

Barriss was paired to one of Jana's satellites, much to her chagrin; Echo and Fives were paired together, those two were attached at the hip, Ahsoka thought; Anakin was paired with Jana; and Ahsoka was paired with Rex.

The game started out okay, but within minutes several of the pairs were out, including Barriss. Anakin seemed to be doing alright even though the only part of Jana's body that seemed to be moving was her mouth, Echo and Fives looked as if they did this on a daily basis, dodging the balls and returning shots with uncanny accuracy.

Ahsoka wasn't sure at first how Rex would react to her moves, but apparently he'd also done this before and the two of them had no trouble keeping up with each other.

After half an hour the game ended at a draw since they had run out of time and Mr. Fisto dismissed them to go home.

They had grabbed their bags, changing quickly before walking out to the curb to be picked up. Ahsoka's dad was running late so she and Barriss passed the time talking. As they did Ahsoka could see Rex, Echo, and Fives walk towards three motorcycles. She touched Barriss's shoulder and pointed.

"Where are they going?" she asked.

Barriss shrugged. "Home, they live on a ranch about twenty miles from here, no one knows much about it except that the ranch is a safe haven for those who need it, it's run by a man named Kal Skirata, he's the richest man in this part of the country," Barriss said. Ahsoka was about to ask something else when a car honked.

"That's my ride, see you tomorrow, Ahsoka," Barriss said, climbing into the passenger side of the car and driving away. Ahsoka was all but alone with her thoughts when she heard someone walk up behind her.

"You leaving yet?" Anakin asked.

"I'm waiting for my dad, he's running a little late," Ahsoka said. Anakin nodded and the two of them stood in an awkward silence before Ahsoka spoke up.

"So why do you wear a glove on only one hand?" she asked.

Anakin looked down at his right hand. "Almost a year ago I was in an accident, they had to amputate most of my arm," he started but stopped at Ahsoka's cursory examination of his seemingly whole right arm.

"If they amputated your right arm, than what is this, some kind of prosthetic?" Ahsoka asked, her curiosity peaked.

"Yes, this is a prosthetic, it uses sensors to read what my nerves are telling it to do and it does what they say, the technical jargon would be too complicated for us to understand," he said.

"Wouldn't something like that be expensive?" Ahsoka asked, eyeing his worn clothes.

He laughed at her observation. "I know what you're thinking, how could someone like me afford something that expensive?" Anakin said. "Well, apparently Senator Palpatine has taken an interest in my education and general wellbeing, he's the one who's supplied all the funds for me to have a new arm," Anakin finished.

"If he's providing for your well-being then why are your clothes so worn?" She asked.

"Because I like them that way," Anakin said, not bothering to elaborate.

Ahsoka was left dumbfounded and before she could ask another question a car horn sounded. Ahsoka turned and saw a police car parked there.

"Well, looks like my stepfather's here," Anakin said and a tall man in a policeman's uniform with long hair pulled into a ponytail walked up to them.

"Ahsoka, this is my stepfather Qui-gon, Dad, this is Ahsoka," Anakin introduced the two of them and they shook hands.

"Nice to meet you, Ahsoka, unfortunately we need to be on our way, Anakin," he said and went back to the car. Anakin waved and followed him to the car. Ahsoka turned and walked away, a moment later she heard Anakin coming up behind her again.

"Forget something?" Ahsoka asked good-naturedly and turned around, but it wasn't Anakin, it was Jana Starr.

Her satellites were nowhere to be seen and her face was red. "You stay away from Anakin, he's mine!" She spat.

"I'm not interested in anything more than friendship," Ahsoka said, more than a little put off by Jana's demeanor.

"Let me make myself clear," Jana said and enunciated her words very carefully.

"Stay. Away. From. Anakin. Or else you'll be sorry," she finished. Ahsoka stood her ground and was going to say something when a car honked. She turned and could see her father waiting for her.

Ahsoka decided that having the last word wasn't worth it so she turned her back on Jana and walked away. She climbed into her father's car and they drove away, looking in the mirror Ahsoka could see a red faced Jana staring angrily after them.

I'm going to have to keep an eye on her, Ahsoka thought to herself. It had been a crazy first day of school.

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 _ **Thanks for the reviews guys, they mean a lot to me.**_

 _ **Please read and review, constructive criticism is welcome as are questions. :)**_


	4. Chapter 4: Sneaking Suspicions

_**Sorry for the huge delay in updating. I had planned on updating sooner, but life got in the way.**_

 _ **Anyways, thank you for your patience, everyone who has read and reviewed rocks.**_

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Ahsoka groaned as her alarm rang and she slapped the snooze button on it before turning over and going back to sleep. It had been almost three months since the Tano's had moved to Corrie and Ahsoka seemed to be fitting in pretty well. She and Echo had started emailing on a regular basis and were meeting every other Saturday at the library to study, Rex began coming as well and Fives only came when they would go to McDonald's afterwards; Ahsoka still couldn't figure out how he knew that 'cause Echo and Rex sure didn't tell him.

Jana Starr and her satellites continued to try and get under her skin, but she usually ignored them. Anakin and Ahsoka had become good friends during this time and he had started calling her Snips for her somewhat snippy demeanor, she retaliated by calling him Skyguy, something Fives found completely hilarious, much to Anakin's chagrin.

Five minutes after her alarm rang someone knocked on her bedroom door and her mother walked in.

"Come on, Ahsoka, it's time to get ready for school," she said, a smile playing at her lips.

Ahsoka groaned and pulled her pillow over her head before answering. "Just five more minutes," she said, her voice slightly muffled.

Her mother chuckled a bit before responding. "Unless you want to have some nice hot chocolate chip pancakes smothered in maple syrup for breakfast you'd better hurry, or else your father will get them first," she said as she stepped out of the room.

Ahsoka shot up in bed. Chocolate chip pancakes were her favorite and she knew how much her father enjoyed stealing her share if she was late.

She practically flew out of bed and raced to the bathroom, arriving moments before her older sister Lilo did.

"Hey, I need to get ready for my job interview!" Lilo said, banging on the door. She was three years older than Ahsoka, at 19, and liked to rub in the fact that she had more important things to do than school.

"And I need to get ready for school! Besides, your interview isn't for another four hours," Ahsoka shot back.

"So? I need time to style my hair," Lilo said.

"Since when does hair styling take four hours?!" Ahsoka asked.

Before Lilo could respond Haymish came around the corner.

"Could you girls keep your voices down? Marina is still sleeping," he said.

Marina was the oldest of the three girls, at 21 years old, and had been up late talking with their grandmother, going to bed at around 1:00 in the morning.

Lilo huffed and went back to her room to pick out her outfit for the interview, twenty minutes later Ahsoka exited the bathroom and went back to her room.

Pulling on her usual tunic and tights, she finished the look with her signature headband and beads. She gave herself a once-over, nodded in satisfaction and headed down to breakfast.

"Morning, Soka," Haymish said, kissing her on the forehead before sitting down.

Ahsoka poured herself a cup of coffee and sat in her usual spot at the table, a minute or two later Yuae carefully sat down as well, adjusting her heavily pregnant form until she was comfortable.

"Dad, do you think I could go to the library Saturday? Echo and I want to spend some time studying for the upcoming history test" Ahsoka said, stuffing her mouth with delicious chocolate chip pancakes.

"I don't see why not, though we wouldn't be able to pick you up afterwards," he answered, not looking up from his newspaper. Ahsoka shook her head and smiled, the internet and TV had been around for years now and Haymish still insisted on reading the newspaper.

"That's fine, I can figure out a way back," she said.

Lilo joined them for breakfast a few minutes later soon followed by Marina, who poured herself some coffee with lots of creamer.

"Morning, Sweetie, I thought you'd still be in bed," Yuae said.

Marina just shook her head and smiled. "I probably still would be if it hadn't been for the two mockingbirds over there," she said, gesturing at Ahsoka and Lilo.

Before Lilo could make a snarky reply Ahsoka spoke up. "Do you think you could take me to school today?" She asked Marina, who pretended to thinking heavily on the subject before fixing her with a suspicious stare.

"What's in it for me?" She asked.

"You'll get to hang out with one of the most awesome people on the planet," Ahsoka replied with an innocent smile.

Marina exchanged the stare for a smile a minute later. "Sure, Kiddo, we leave in ten," she said, finishing her coffee.

Ahsoka smiled and ran back to her room to grab her backpack before running out and climbing into Marina's 1991 Dodge Dakota pickup. Marina climbed in as well, started the engine, and soon they were on their way.

Ten minutes later Ahsoka was watching as Marina drove away when she heard motorcycle engines and saw Rex, Fives, and Echo pull up on their motorcycles.

Now that Ahsoka could see the bikes better she realized that she could tell whose was whose. Fives's bike was blue with silver trim and had an stylized 5 on both sides, just like his tattoo, she thought, done in black so it stood out on the blue paint job; Echo's bike was silver with blue trim and had what looked like a hand print done in dark blue paint on the left side, almost as of someone dipped their hand in pain and pressed it to the side; Rex's bike was similar to Echo's except for one thing, while Echo's bike had the hand print on it Rex's bike looked like it had a pair of slants that had one straight line and one line that curved from the outside inward, almost like the eyes of an animal, and there were tally marks below it.

The brothers pulled off their helmets and chained them to the bikes before making their way towards her.

Winter was approaching fast and the weather, though not as cold as Montana, still made her wear a hoodie over her usual attire, the boys however didn't seem to mind the weather at all.

"Hey, Ahsoka, what's up?" Fives said and Ahsoka rolled her eyes. Since she had started getting to know the brothers she found that Fives personally was mostly an act to put people at ease, she had discovered that he deeply cared about his friends and family and when either of them were threatened he became a totally different person.

She had seen evidence of this just last week when some stupid jock had tried to pick on Echo. Even though Echo could definitely take care of himself both he and Rex had to restrain Fives from pummeling the poor fool.

"Not much," she replied. "Hey, Echo, my dad said it was fine to go to the library Saturday."

He smiled and pulled off his leather jacket and gloves as they walked into the school.

"Awesome, do you need me to pick you up?" He asked and Ahsoka shook her head.

"Nah, my mom's got that covered, though I could use a lift home afterwards, my family won't be able to come get me."

Echo nodded as he placed his things in his locker and slung his backpack over his shoulder. "I think something can be arranged," he said with a smile.

The bell rang and everyone hurried to their classes, hoping that vice principal Windu would catch them if they were late.

The morning classes went by fast. Ms. Ti had handed out book reading assignments and gently chastised a student for falling asleep in class. They had chemistry with Mr. Koon who had them experiment with dry ice, wearing protective gear of course. Mr Koon was a tall man, bald with dark skin and long fingers. Because of health problems when he was younger he had to lug around an oxygen tank that he was constantly hooked up to, though he didn't seem bothered by it.

Ahsoka made her way into the hall and was just opening her locker when Barriss walked up.

"Hey, Ahsoka, you doing anything Friday night?" She asked.

"Not really, why?" Ahsoka replied, grabbing her history books and closing the locker door.

"Well, a few of the guys on the football team are throwing a party, and they said I could bring someone..." she trailed off, looking pointedly at Ahsoka.

Ahsoka sighed. "I don't know, Barriss, I'm not that kind of girl, I don't think I should," she said.

"Oh, come on, Ahsoka, I'll be all by myself without you," she said, adding a pout.

"Okay, sure, I'll be there," she said after a slight hesitation.

"Awesome, I'll text you the address, it's at 6 p.m." Barriss said and headed off to the cafeteria

Ahsoka sighed and pressed her forehead against her locker. What did I just get myself into? She asked herself.

It was too late to take anything back so Ahsoka sighed again and headed for the cafeteria as well.

Ahsoka, Rex, Echo, Fives, and Barriss were all sitting at their usual table together when Anakin walked up with a girl around his age.

"Hey, guys, I'd like to introduce you to someone, this is Padme Amidala," he said and then the two of them sat down.

"It's nice to meet you all," she said.

Padme was slightly shorter than Anakin with brown eyes and long brown hair that she kept pulled into a simple bun. Her clothes were new and fashionable, but also practical and didn't draw attention to herself. She held herself with an air of dignity and whenever she spoke she addressed people individuality, making eye contact with everyone involved.

"Amidala, as in Senators Jobal and Ruwee Amidala?" Barriss asked politely.

Padme nodded. "Yeah, they're my parents," she said, bowing her head in slight embarrassment.

"There's no need to be embarrassed, Padme," Echo said. He new what it was like coming from a well off family and could relate to Padme in that regard.

The rest of lunch was spent discussing a variety of subjects. Ahsoka discovered that Padme was studying to follow in her parent's footsteps. The two of them got along swimmingly and Ahsoka noticed that, while neither of them made a show of it, Anakin and Padme definitely had something going on.

The rest of the day went on and Ahsoka saw more evidence for her theory on Anakin and Padme. A lingering smile here, a quick hand squeeze there, just a lot of little things that most people wouldn't notice or care about.

If they like each other, why would they be trying to hide it? She mused to herself. If Anakin was hiding something, Ahsoka would most definitely find out.

* * *

 _ **Please read and review. :)**_


	5. Chapter 5: Parties and Complications

**_Sorry this took so long. This chapter was really hard to write, and work was difficult these past weeks which didn't help at all._**

 ** _Anyways, thanks for your patience and I hope you'll enjoy the chapter. :)_**

* * *

Ahsoka was extremely uncomfortable. When she had agreed to going to a party she wasn't planning on attending a rave.

When she arrived things had started out alright, but then everyone else showed up and the noise level had increased exponentially. Barriss had chatted with her for a bit but soon went off to dance with one of the jocks.

The house was a split level with a large kitchen, two huge living rooms, an unknown number of bedrooms, and an enormous basement where a DJ had set up house and was now blaring music. It was in the part of the city where the big shots lived, that meant that everything was probably really expensive, in light of that Ahsoka did her utmost to not touch anything.

There were teenagers everywhere and Ahsoka had a hard time not bumping into people as she searched for anyone who looked familiar.

It didn't seem as if any adults were around and when Ahsoka asked Barriss said that the homeowner was out for the weekend. This new piece of information made the already uncomfortable situation even worse.

A couple of boys had tried to flirt with her, but she shut them down in a hurry. Rex, Echo, and Fives hadn't come because they'd already made plans, though Ahsoka really wished they were here right now.

After two hours Ahsoka had had enough, she had tried to mingle with people, but soon beer cans started appearing and some of the boys wouldn't leave her alone, frustrated with the attention she went off to find Barriss.

"Barriss, I don't think we should be doing this!" Ahsoka shouted over the music.

"What?!" Barriss shouted back.

"I said I don't think we should be doing this!" Ahsoka repeated loudly.

"Oh come on, we're just having some fun!" Barriss replied.

"I really don't feel comfortable here, Barriss, I think we should leave!" Ahsoka said.

"You need to loosen up, Ahsoka, you're only going to be sixteen once, you should enjoy it while it lasts!" Barriss replied and went back to dancing.

"I think I'm just going to head home!" Ahsoka said, but Barriss didn't hear her through the noise.

Sighing to herself Ahsoka turned and ran into someone.

"Hey, pre'y girl, dance wit' me," a sixteen year old guy slurred as he grabbed Ahsoka, pulling her into the crowd. His breath stank of alcohol and he didn't seem lucid at all, he'd obviously had one too many.

Great, she thought to herself, now it's an illegal party.

Ahsoka twisted out of his grasp and tried to walked away but he grabbed her again and pulled her towards himself, wrapping an arm around her back and learning in close.

"How's 'bout we find s'mwhere more private he said," completely ignored Ahsoka's attempts to free herself.

"Let me go!" She demanded. She didn't want to hurt the guy, but if he wasn't going to let up she would make him. Grabbing the hand holding her arm she ripped it off and twisted the dude's arm behind his back while simultaneously thrusting him away with a boot to his backside. It was a trick Marina had showed her that was only to be used in self-defense, and Ahsoka was pretty sure that this counted.

He yelled in pain and embarrassment and whirled around after regaining his balance, which took a minute due to the press of bodies and the shifting floor.

"Wha' you doing tha' fer!" He shouted.

"I told you to leave me alone and you didn't listen!" Ahsoka shouted back over the noise, with that she turned and disappeared into the crowd, pushing for the front door, ignoring the howl of indignation coming from behind her.

She was almost there when someone slammed into her and she and went crashing to the floor.

"Hey!" She shouted.

"Oh, I am so sorry, Miss, I didn't see you there, are you alright?!" Ahsoka looked up and couldn't help but stare.

The person standing in front of her was wearing casual clothes but held himself with an air of dignity. His dark brown hair was combed neatly to one side and his eyes... they were the darkest brown Ahsoka had ever seen and were filled with humor as they stared into hers.

Belatedly, she realized that he had been offering a hand to help her up for a few seconds now. Ahsoka blushed and accepted the hand graciously, pulling herself to her feet she reluctantly released his hand.

"Hi," he said, a smile gracing his lips at her somewhat starstruck expression.

"H-hi yourself," Ahsoka stuttered out.

"What's your name?" He asked.

"Ahsoka," she said.

"Well, nice to meet you, Ahsoka, my name is Lux," he said.

Ahsoka smiled. "No last name?" She asked.

Lux simply shrugged. "You'll find out eventually," he replied with a wink.

Ahsoka was about to respond when that drunk teen came up to her again.

"C'mon, Baby, jus' one dance," he slurred and made to grab Ahsoka, this time though she didn't wait for him to grab her and immediately went on the offensive.

She delivered a mild punch to his stomach, causing him to double up in pain, arms wrapped around his midsection, and swept his feet out from under him by swinging her leg around, catching him behind his knees and throwing him off balance.

He crashed to the floor and Lux began clapping.

"Well done, you certainly know how to take care of yourself," he said.

At that moment sirens could be heard and red and blue lights flashed through the windows.

Lux sighed. "Do you should go, the bus stop is about four blocks from here, go and call for your ride there," he said, quickly placing something in her hand before turning and disappearing into the crowd.

Looking down Ahsoka realized that the piece of paper had a phone number and email address on and she smiled. So much for not being interested in guys,"she thought to herself.

* * *

Needless to say, Ahsoka was grateful for Lux's instructions. The next day Barriss called her and said that the police had shut down the party due to disturbing the neighbors. When they entered the house the found the beer and made every teen present take an alcohol test, all the kids that read positive were taken to the station.

"I mean seriously, why would the neighbors even care about a party at the Bonteri house!" She exclaimed. "It's not like we were having a concert or something." Barriss was one of the teens taken to the station after reading positive on the test. Her mother, Luminara, had not been amused to have the police call her at 10:00 p.m. to come collect her daughter from the station, she had been grounded for a month, partly because she wasn't allowed to attend parties and had snuck out.

"Wait, did you say the Bonteri house?" Ahsoka asked.

"Yeah, Raze Bonteri is the one who threw the party while Senator Bonteri was away, his brother Lux was there too, but he managed to avoid getting in trouble somehow, he's not exactly the partying kind of guy," Barriss said.

Ahsoka was dumbstruck, she had thought that Lux looked a bit familiar when they met, but she had never thought that he was THE Lux Bonteri, son of one of the most well-known and respected Senators in the country.

"Hello?" Barriss asked. "Ahsoka, are you still there?"

"Yeah, I guess I am," she replied, still in a daze.

"Anyways, I'll have to call you some other time, my once a day phone call only has a fifteen minute time limit and I'm not allowed to use my email either, we'll have to talk at school," Barriss said, sounding a bit resentful.

"Okay, bye," Ahsoka said and hung up.

Looking at the clock, she realized that she would have be leaving soon if she wanted to keep her meeting with Echo.

* * *

An hour later Marina and Ahsoka pulled up just down the street from the massive and ancient building that was Corrie's library.

"Thanks for the ride, Marina," Ahsoka said, grabbing her backpack.

"No problem," Marina replied. Ahsoka had just climbed out of the vehicle when she was called back. "Just to let you know, Dad got the day off and will be picking you up around five."

"Okay, thanks," Ahsoka said. She took the steps two at a time, entered through the two heavy oak doors, the huge clock on the wall read 1:57 p.m. which meant that she was right on time, and moved up another set of stairs to their usual spot in the corner of the room.

Echo and Fives were already there when Ahsoka sat down. "Hey, guys, is Rex not joining us today?" She asked.

"He was going to, but something came up," Echo said.

Ahsoka nodded and got out her notebook and history books. They were studying for an upcoming test on the civil war, well... she and Echo were anyway, Fives just came to flirt with the librarians.

Of course that didn't go over well so Fives contented himself with tossing a small ball to Echo, who would catch it without even looking and throw it back.

Ahsoka found it terribly interesting as well as slightly disturbing how they could do stuff like that. It's almost as if they always know what the other is thinking, she thought to herself.

* * *

Yuae Tano was standing at the table folding laundry when Haymish walked in with the mail. He sat heavily on the opposite side of the table and flipped through envelope after envelope.

"Bills, bills, a letter for Marina, and some junk mail," he said, standing again and pouring himself a glass of milk while grabbing a couple of Yuae's freshly baked double chocolate chip cookies.

"Something wrong, Haymish?" She asked, walking over and swatting Haymish's hands in mock annoyance.

"No, Honey, just talking to myself," he replied. "Why don't you wait and ask Ahsoka to do those?"

"Ahsoka already does so much for me, it's unfair to always make her help," Yuae said, placing the folded laundry back in the basket. "Besides, I'm pregnant, not crippled, I'd go crazy if I didn't do something."

Hoisting the basket up she made her way towards the stairs.

"I guess you're right," Haymish said, turning back to the table.

He had just sat down again when Yuae screamed and a loud thud resounded through the house.

"Yuae!" Haymish yelled, running towards the stairs. The laundry lay scattered on the floor and Yuae lay on the ground, blood dripping from her forehead

"Yuae! Are you alright?! Yuae!" He yelled. She didn't respond so Haymish pulled his cell from his pocket and dialed 911.

"911 emergency, what..." Haymish didn't give them time to finish, he told them what happened and they assured him that an ambulance was on its way and that he should not attempt to move her.

Fifteen minutes later Haymish was sitting in the back of the ambulance holding Yuae's hand, telling her she was going to be okay and praying that she would be.

* * *

"Where did Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson get his nickname?" Ahsoka read out loud.

"During the first Battle of Bull Run another general used Jackson to rally the troops, referring to him as a "Stone Wall" indicating that he could stand his ground in the face of great adversity," Echo replied just as Ahsoka's cellphone went off.

"Sorry, got to take this," she apologized, walking a little ways away.

"So, went are you gonna go for it?" Fives asked.

Echo choked on the Gatorade he was drinking and stared at Fives. "What are you talking about?" He asked, wiping his mouth on the sleeve of his jacket.

"You know what I mean, I've been watching you make goo goo eyes at her for the past month," Fives said with a little smirk on his face.

Echo blushed, bit didn't say anything. He knew nothing would change Fives's mind in the matter, but he knew he was right.

Ahsoka startled to two of them when she raced back, grabbing her backpack and disappearing down the stairs.

In a flash they were running after Ahsoka, catching up to her outside. She took off down the street and had made it two blocks when Fives pulled up on his motorcycle.

"Ahsoka! Where are you going?!" Fives called.

"The hospital!" Ahsoka shouted back. "Something's happened to my mom!"

"Come on, we'll give you a lift," he shouted. Without another thought Ahsoka climbed on and gripped Fives around the waist as he gunned it down the street, Echo close behind.

Ten minutes later they were running to the front desk, startling the receptionist at their sudden appearance.

"I'm looking for Yuae Tano, I was told she's here," Ahsoka gasped, slightly out of breath from the mad dash inside. The lady nodded and checked her computer screen before responding.

"Yes, a Yuae Tano was checked in at approximately 3:37 p.m.," she replied. "If you would please follow me."

Without another word the receptionist got up and walked down the hallway to her left, the three of them following behind.

A few left and right turns later Ahsoka could see her father sitting in a chair.

"Dad!" She called and ran towards him enveloping Haymish in a massive hug.

"Hey, 'Soka," he said.

"What's wrong with Mom?" She asked, a worried frown stretched across her face.

Haymish sighed before replying. "Your mother was carrying a load of laundry up the stairs, she fell and hit her head..." he said when a nurse came running.

"Mr Tano, we need your help," she said and took off down the hall with Haymish not far behind.

Ahsoka just stood there for several minutes, shocked by the events.

"Hey, Ahsoka, you alright?" Echo asked placing a hand on her shoulder.

Ahsoka didn't respond, instead her shoulders began to shake and she started sobbing.

Echo came to stand in front of her, wrapping his arms around her, Ahsoka melted into the embrace and cried harder.

"Shhh," Echo said. "It's going to be alright, your mom is going to pull through this."

He guided Ahsoka over to a chair and they sat down, seconds later Marina and Lilo came running in.

"We heard what happened, is mom okay?!" Lilo demanded, but Ahsoka could only shake her head, she didn't know. After explaining the accident Marina and Lilo sat down, settling in for a long wait.

Almost two hours later when an exhausted Haymish returned, his hair was in a net and a surgical mask was in his hands. Ahsoka had fallen asleep with her head in Marina's lap and Fives jacket draped over her shoulders, Echo was reading a magazine, and Fives had gone to get coffee from the cafeteria, Lilo had gone with him.

Marina, who was the first to see Haymish coming, shook Ahsoka's shoulder, waking her up, and the two of them stood.

Haymish approached them, exhaustion radiated from his body, but he also had a smile on his face. They wrapped their arms around him and he gave each of them a kiss on the forehead before speaking.

"Your mother's going to be alright..." he said and the girls sighed in relief, but Haymish wasn't finished. "...And your new sister is fine as well."

Ahsoka and Marina released him, mouths hanging open in shock when someone behind them screamed, causing the two of them to jump.

Unbeknownst to them Lilo had arrived just in time to hear that last part, she shoved the bag of brownies into a startled Fives's already full hands and ran to the small group of family members, pulling them all into a group hug.

As she babbled excitedly, Ahsoka managed a quick sideways glance at the twins, catching Fives give Echo a slightly confused yet knowing smile and the latter simply rolling his eyes.

Yes, she had a few somewhat odd friends, but they were her odd friends.

* * *

 _ **Please read and review, and thank you to all the people who've favorited this story so far, this is my first really successful one. :)**_


	6. Chapter 6: Lazy Days (for most anyway)

_**I am so sorry it's taken me so long to update!**_

 _ **Work has been hell, I've had little to no time to write at all since I usually end up falling into bed as soon as I get home.**_

 _ **Anyway, this more of a filler chapter than anything, so I hope you like it. :)**_

 ** _To the guest reviewer(s)- I will try to add Kalifa but I must warn you that she may not survive long in this story since she was only featured in one episode, and I will try to update as fast as I can which, unfortunately, will not be as often as I would like._**

 ** _Thank you all for your patience._**

* * *

Anakin was flopped over his desk when his alarm rang. Because it was Saturday night he had stayed up late working on one of his inventions and fallen asleep, not even realizing he had done so. He groaned and rubbed his face with his hand before reaching over to turn off the accursed piece of technology.

After showering he pulled on his usual attire and walked down the hall to the living room where his mother was sitting in her favorite chair, knitting and watching the news.

He grabbed a protein bar and sat heavily on the couch pulling out a small circuit board and a multi-tool from his pocket.

"Good morning," Shmi said.

"Morning, where's dad?" He asked.

"Senator Palpatine called and asked him to attend a press conference as well as buff up security a little," she said.

Anakin looked up at her with confusion on his face. "What happened?" He asked, his circuit board forgotten. Every time Palpatine called Qui-Gon to attend a press conference something bad had either happened or was going to happen.

"Last night another pawn shop was robbed, making this the third one robbed in the past two months, all the guns and ammo were taken and the jewelry was left untouched just like the others, but this time the owner was shot, surveillance cameras only caught the face of one of the perpetrators and are trying to find out who she is," Shmi said.

Anakin watched the tv where Senator Palpatine was giving a speech, Qui-Gon stood little behind and to the right of the Senator in full uniform.

"... And I promise you that we will find the criminals that did this, Police Chief Qui-Gon Jin and his men have successfully found out the identity of the woman caught by security cameras as Letta Turmond, known for petty theft and smuggling, and will initiate a city wide search for the woman, if anyone has any information about her please let us know. Thank you."

With that Palpatine turned to leave, speaking with Qui-Gon as he went.

The screen switched back to an anchor lady wearing a dark blue dress shirt and glasses.

"Well, I guess that just proves this is a bigger problem than we realized, the owner of the pawn shop remains in critical condition at the Corrie Medical Center after he was shot twice in the chest, information on this subject will be broadcast as it becomes available, coming up next; the criminal mastermind only known as D. Sidious has all but stopped illegal drug trade in this area, police are puzzled, but have doubled their attempts at figuring out his identity so they can put him behind bars."

"Well that's certainly an uplifting report," Anakin said, muting the tv.

"Oh hush, I'm just glad that Palpatine seems to be doing something about this mess," Shmi said.

"Yup," Anakin said going back to tinkering with his circuit board.

"Oh goodness, I almost forgot, Arty wanted to know if he could come over this afternoon," Shmi finished.

Arty Dellsoo was Anakin's next door neighbor and best friend. He was a short guy who was homeschooled due to bullying when he was younger, he always wore a blue and white jacket as his signature piece of clothing, and he was smart.

As in crazy smart, he could tell you more about computers than anyone and was almost equal with Anakin in robotic engineering. Emphasis on the almost, Anakin thought to himself with a grin as he got up to call him back.

* * *

It was 10:00 on Sunday morning two weeks after Yuae gave birth to Ahsoka's newest sibling, Aeris Sierra Tano. Because it was the last day of the weekend Ahsoka had opted to sleep in a little.

Eventually she hauled herself out of bed and went to the bathroom where she noticed that the blue dye in her hair was fading.

"Guess it's time to re-dye it, she said out loud to herself and made busy collecting the supplies to do so.

When she was done and dressed Ahsoka walked down the stairs grabbing herself a granola bar before pulling on her boots and walking out the door. She made her way to the small barn and went inside, closing the door behind her and walking to the nearest stall.

Inside was a beautiful Appaloosa horse that was dark brown and had a white "blanket" with the occasional brown spot covering his rump and hips. He had been born on Ahsoka's tenth birthday and Haymish immediately gave him to her as a gift.

Granted, Ahsoka hadn't been able to ride him until she was almost thirteen after he had been fully broken in, but she hadn't minded at all.

"Hey, Fulcrum, how are you?" She asked, laughing a little when he snuffed her hair, looking for treats.

The two of them would go riding for hours and he seemed to know instinctively what she needed him to do, it was almost like he could read her mind.

Smiling brightly she lifted his halter off the hook just below the plate with his name on it and led him to the hitching post where she spent the better part of an hour grooming him and braiding his main and tail into a fish tail design.

She was just finishing the last braid when her cell phone went off, startling her and making her jump, Fulcrum on the other hand just stood there munching on his oats.

She huffed in annoyance but it was quickly dispelled when she checked the caller ID, it was Lux.

Since the party where they first met, actually where they first crashed into each other, she and Lux had been texting and calling each other regularly.

They went to some of the same classes and had lunch together most days, though Ahsoka made sure to still have lunch with Fives, Echo, Rex, Anakin, Barriss, and Padme.

"Hey, Lux, what's up?" She asked.

"Not much, things are going well, hey the reason I'm calling is that I've recently come into the possession of two tickets to a Friday night showing of Captain America: Winter Soldier and I was wondering if you'd like to come?" He asked, somewhat sheepishly.

"Lux Bonteri, are you asking me out on a date?" She demanded with mock seriousness.

"W-well I don't think that...I-I'm not sure that's... oh screw it all... yes, I'm asking you out on a date!" He finally said.

Ahsoka had managed to keep a straight face for most of it before she burst out laughing.

After letting her have her laugh Lux spoke. "Sooo... is that a yes?" He asked tentatively.

"Of course it is, silly, when should I be ready?" She asked.

"I'll be by to pick you up at 7:00," he said.

"Alright, see you at school tomorrow," Ahsoka said.

She hung up the phone and turned back to Fulcrum, she heaved a saddle over his back, cinched him up and put his bridle on before pausing to rub his face. He nuzzled her as spoke.

"Well, boy, I think I might be in love," she said, laughing as she swung into the saddle and rode out of the yard.

* * *

It was a sunny Saturday afternoon on the Skirata ranch and everyone was busy. Echo had departed for Corrie to grab some groceries for Laseema, Fives was helping Jaing and K'omrk, two of Kal Skirata's oldest sons, put up some new posts to expand the horse pasture, and Rex was working on changing the oil of one of the ranch's pickup trucks.

Despite the chilly October air, Rex only wore an old pair of jeans and a tank top that were splattered with grease, oil, and dirt. AC/DC's "Thunderstruck" blared from a wireless radio off to the side as he worked. Rex enjoyed the solitude this job brought, as it was something that didn't happen often, giving him time to reflect on his life.

The ranch where he lived, also known as "Kyrimorut", was founded by Kal as a safe haven for teens who had suffered in life, most of which were foster kids. Rex himself had been a foster kid when he was young, and, even though he had been three years old he clearly remembered the day social services came to take him and at the time two year old Echo and Fives away from their mother and her abusive boyfriend.

Rex was separated from the twins and didn't see them again until he was almost eleven years old. He was bounced through the system until Kal came across him and took him in at the age of nine. For two years Rex searched for his brothers with Kal's help and it would have taken longer if not for his adopted older brothers Mereel and Jaing who managed to track them down.

It turns out that Echo and Fives were never separated due to the fact that they physically could not be apart. Because of their mother's tendency to neglect them the twins ended up relying on each other for emotional support and would suffer severe panic attacks to the point where they even stopped breathing if they were apart for more than five hours. They were eventually brought to the ranch, where they learned they didn't always have to be together to stay happy.

Every person who comes to live at Kyrimorut is given a set of fourteen rules from the very beginning that have to be memorized before they are allowed to leave the ranch for anything other than school.

 _#1: Kal's word is law, when he isn't around the Nulls Ordo, Mereel, A'den, Jaing, K'omrk, and Prudii speak for him._

 _#2: Disrespect towards Kal, the Nulls, or any form of authoritative figure will not be tolerated, punishment for such an act will be dealt out swiftly and severely._

 _#3: Everyone pulls their weight, if you don't want to work you don't get to eat._

 _#4: Privileges are gained through trust and hard work, don't expect any special treatment due to gender, social standing, or just because you think you're better than everyone else._

 _#5: Everyone at Kyrimorut who is able is required to attend school, exceptions are made only if Kal deems it necessary. Homework must be completed before lights out._

 _#6: The gun case is off limits to everyone except Nulls and a select few who have been shown how to shoot and clean them._

 _#7: Everyone who has ventured out beyond Kyrimorut's borders must be back within 100 yards of the main house by 6:00 p.m. curfew, lights out is at 10:00 p.m. sharp (exceptions to this rule are made when necessary)._

 _#8: If for any reason you are delayed from meeting the appointed curfew time you must contact Kal or one of the Nulls to inform them of the breach in protocol and the reason for said breach._

 _#9: There will be absolutely no drinking any kind of alcoholic beverages if you are under the age of 21, a breach in protocol means severe punishment for all offending parties._

 _#10: Illegal drugs are completely forbidden on Kyrimorut grounds, a breach in protocol means severe punishment for all offending parties._

 _#11: There will be no purpling while on Kyrimorut grounds, a breach in protocol means severe punishment for all offending parties (married couples are excluded from this rule)._

 _#12: Bedrooms are not to be entered without permission from the occupants or Kal._

 _#13: Lying and deception are not permitted, a breach in protocol means severe punishment for all parties involved._

 _#14:All rules are to be obeyed at all costs, a breach in protocol means severe punishment for all offending parties._

Rex's thoughts were interrupted by a pair of familiar cowboy boots walking up. He slid out from under the truck and stood, wiping his grease covered hands on a dirty handkerchief and turning off the radio before turning to Etain Tur-Mukan, Rex's brother Darman's girlfriend.

She was wearing a lot of layers to combat the chilly air, but they did little to disguise the extremely obvious baby bump underneath. Etain didn't live at Kyrimorut but was planning on moving in when the lease on her apartment was up in another six months, despite Kal's offer to buy off the lease himself.

"How can you stand working out here at these temperatures?" Etain asked, a smile playing on her lips.

"I manage just fine," he replied, smiling as well. "Is there something you need?"

Etain pulled a flawless poker face as she replied without hesitation. "Yes, my back to stop aching, this weather to warm up, a nice hot bath, and Jr. here to stop kicking."

She managed to keep the poker face for another few seconds before it shattered and she burst out laughing, Rex joining in as well.

"I'm not sure I can help with the first two, but I can ask Laseema to draw you a bath, and Jr. will stop kicking in his own time, he's just proving that he's his father's son," he said. "What are you doing out here?"

"Kal wants to see you in his office," she said, pulling her coat tighter around her body as a particularly cold gust of wind pulled at her hair. "Something about more "guests" joining us for an undefined period of time."

Rex nodded, closing the hood of the truck and following Etain to the house. Whenever Kal announced that Kyrimorut would be having "guests" he had all the senior members of the family currently on site meet him in his office.

When Rex got there he saw that Ordo, Prudii, Laseema, Etain, Darman, Niner, Atin, Corr, and Fi were present as well as Kal himself. Darman was sitting on a small lounge with Etain snuggled up next to him, Atin was standing over by the gun case with an arm wrapped around Laseema, his wife.

Laseema was a sweet woman that Kal and Ordo had rescued from a strip club, she was Kyrimorut's head cook and had a real soft spot for kids caught in bad situations, but this doesn't mean that she's a pushover either, having been trained by her marine husband and his friends. She was from Latino descent and almost as tall as tall as Atin with wavy dark brown hair and brown eyes that sparkled when she laughed.

Ordo and Prudii were currently home for a few months after an extended mission over seas. Atin, Corr, Niner, and Darman were currently preparing to be shipped out at the end of the month for a six month assignment.

A'den and Mereel were together on special assignment at the moment in an undisclosed location, not that Kal couldn't find out of course, with sons like Jaing and Ordo nothing was hidden for very long.

Kal cleared his throat after everyone had entered the room and closed the double doors.

"Alright everyone, we are going to be having a couple of troubled teens stay with us for what I am told is an undisclosed amount of time. Prudii, your job is to find out how long the system plans on letting them stay here and, if necessary, to modify it. A couple of weeks isn't enough time for them to properly adjust to a strange environment, Ordo, you'll be picking them up," Kal said.

"Yes, Buir," Ordo and Prudii Chorused.

"Etain, I need you to go over the files, find out what they do and don't like and prepare accordingly," he said.

"Yes, Kal," she said, a grateful smile gracing her lips. This meant she wouldn't have to get up very much.

Laseema, I need you to prepare rooms for our guests, Fi can help you," he said.

Yes, Kal," she said.

"Rex, make sure the animals are locked up, we don't want them getting loose and starting a panic," Kal finished.

"Yes, Buir," Rex said.

"Alright, dismissed," Kal said and everyone filed out of the office towards their perspective assignments.

* * *

 _ **Please read and review and let me know what you think, I completely open to ideas.**_


	7. Chapter 7: Troubled Souls (part 1)

**_Please read._**

 ** _First things first: Carrie Fisher has passed away due to a heart attack on December 27th, 2016. It sad because I grew up watching her in the original Star Wars trilogy._**

 ** _Secondly: I'm glad you like my story, and I'm flattered by the comments from "guest" that appear every other week asking for more, but you have to realize that I do have a job, family, and responsibilities. That means I will write as often as I have free time, which isn't much._**

 ** _Besides that, thanks for your support and reviews._**

 ** _WARNING: Mentions of abuse and attempted suicide._**

* * *

This wasn't how it was supposed to be.

This wasn't how a family was supposed to be.

A family was supposed have love and happiness...

...but this one didn't.

There was screaming and yelling, the sound of a fist hitting a face and crying... lots of crying, then a slamming door.

It was like this every night, dad would come home after spending most of her mom's wages on alcohol and gambling, mom would confront him and they would argue and yell, then he would hit her and leave to spend the rest, to drown his memories and forget his life.

This went on for six years, by then mom had had enough. He came home one day to find her gone, she had run off with an old boyfriend and wasn't coming back.

With her out of the way he turned his sights and rage on their eight year old daughter, Tallisibeth. He blamed her for her mother leaving, and "punished" her accordingly.

... _worthless_...

... _pathetic_...

That was what he called her, often reinforcing them with a fist.

At school the children were terrible, they didn't understand why she would walk around in frumpy sweaters and sweat pants, and made fun of her for it, they didn't realize the abuse they were meant to hide. The boys would push her down and pull her hair, but she wouldn't say anything.

Her grades suffered and that resulted in more beatings since he demanded perfection, and she obviously wasn't.

She never spoke, at home it was considered a crime, and punishment would be swift. She never cried, because she had no more tears left.

... _stupid_...

... _incompetent_...

... _you never should have been born_...

This time it was the voices in her head, and, for some reason, these hurt more than her father's fist. She took to cutting her legs, knowing that no one would look there, to fight mental pain with physical pain, but it wasn't enough.

... _your fault_...

... _hated_...

... _no one cares for you_...

Tallisibeth knew that the last one wasn't true. Someone did care for her.

Rosalie was her father's girlfriend, and, though they shared the same bed and house, they were as different as night and day.

She was nice to Tallisibeth, but was always busy, so they never spent time together. Even though that was the case, Tallisibeth still felt like Rosalie was the only person who bothered to care about her.

Her father wasn't able to hold a job because he was violent, so Rosalie ended up working two jobs just to keep a roof over their heads. Six days a week she would work as a waitress from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m., come home for three hours to rest and make dinner before heading off to the hospital as a janitor from 6 p.m. to 3 a.m.

Since she was never around she didn't know of the abuse inflicted on Tallisibeth by the man she called father.

Another six years of hell followed after her mother left, one day, after one of her father's daily punishments, fourteen year old Tallisibeth decided she had also had enough. Rosalie was nice, but it wasn't enough. Tallisibeth ran to the kitchen and grabbed a knife from a drawer before going back upstairs.

... _your mother never loved you_...

... _you should just kill yourself_...

These were words her father had often repeated to her, so much so that she now believed them.

She went to the bathroom, locked the door, and removed her outer clothes, neatly folding and placing them on the toilet seat. Then she filled the bathtub with hot water and climbed in, at first it was agony, but after a few minutes it was relaxing.

She wasn't afraid, she had stopped being afraid long ago.

The first cut was shallow, merely testing the sharpness of the blade. Blood welled up and, with that, without hesitation, she slashed both her wrists down to the bone then added even more on each arm for good measure.

She gently placed the blade on the side of the tub before leaning back and closing her eyes. She was ready.

* * *

The next thing she knew was yelling, lots of yelling. She felt someone lifting her onto something that began moving. Someone opened each of her eyes and shined a light into them.

They were calling her name, but how did they know her name?

What was happening, why wouldn't they let her die in peace?

She could hear snippets of conversation and what sounded like someone shouting orders.

"... hypovolemic shock... transfusion... we're losing her..."

Then her world faded into nothing.

* * *

Rosalie was exhausted.

Her boss had rejected the raise she had asked for, customers were loud and rude, and Robert wasn't lifting a finger to help with their money situation, their landlord was threatening them with eviction, and Rosalie was just too tired to deal with it.

She unlocked the front door and walked inside, noticing that Robert wasn't there, probably at the bar as usual, she thought. What she really needed was a hot bath and a good supper. She headed to the master bedroom upstairs,, throwing her purse and keys on the bed, and then turning towards the bathroom.

When she arrived she noticed the bathroom light was on. Knocking softly she called out to who she knew was probably Tallisibeth.

"Talli? Is that you?" She called, using the pet name she gave her.

She didn't receive an answer of course, Tallisibeth was a self appointed mute, though Rosalie never understood why. She was a sweet girl who loved to paint and write, she loved horses and would spend hours just drawing them, only showing them to Rosalie when she was tired.

"She'll probably be out soon," Rosalie said to herself, returning to the master bedroom for a clean pair of clothes. She pulled out her underwear drawer and lifted a secret compartment, pulling out the small tin container and opening it.

Inside were dollar bills and loose change, Rosalie was saving what little money she got from tips to hopefully buy Tallisibeth a nice birthday present this year. She deposited a handful of bills and a few pennies into the ever growing collection and sighed, this would definitely take a while.

She returned the tin and closed up the little hole before laying back on her pillow to hopefully catch a few Z's before making dinner when she felt and heard something crackling under her left shoulder.

Curious, she sat up and grabbed the now visible piece of paper and opened it. She smiled when she saw that it was another horse picture, and moved her gaze down to the small message at the bottom.

Usually Talli would write a little poetry to describe the beautiful creatures at the bottom of the page, but this one wasn't poetry.

 _Rosalie,_

 _You are the best friend I could ever hope for. I'm sorry I wasn't able to tell you, but I thought you should know._

 _The past six years have been hard for me, especially before you got here, if you want to know more, there's a journal hidden in my dresser, you'll find all the answers there._

 _I also wanted to tell you that I am leaving, that I'm going somewhere where no one will be able to find me... or hurt me ever again._

 _I love you,_

 _Tallisibeth_

Rosalie sat stunned on the bed for two seconds before sprinting to the bathroom. She tried the doorknob and found it was locked, so she backed up and rammed it open, ignoring the pain shooting up her shoulder.

"Oh my gosh!" She whispered in horror.

The sight she was met with was out of a horror movie. Tallisibeth was lying in the bathtub in nothing but her underwear and bra, the water was red and she was deathly pale, then she noticed the knife.

"Tallisibeth!" She yelled.

Throwing caution to the wind Rosalie ran forward and lifted Tallisibeth out of the bathtub, wrapping towels around both her wrists which had gruesome cuts all over them.

She tightly tied the towels and fumbled for her phone, dialing 911, and frantically waiting for the operator to pick up.

When they finally did Rosalie explained the situation and was told the paramedics were on their way, after this bit of knowledge she broke down and the operator did her best to get the distressed woman to calm down.

Ten minutes later the paramedics arrived, ten minutes after that Rosalie and Tallisibeth were on their way to the hospital.

After several emergency transfusions and stitches Rosalie was allowed to see her.

"Oh Talli," she whispered, tears rolling down her face. "What have you done." She ran her fingers through the girl's strawberry blond hair and sat down in a chair provided for her, settling in for what would be a long wait.

It was two days before Tallisibeth woke again.


	8. Chapter 8: Troubled Souls (part 2)

_**I am soooooo sorry for the extra long wait, I did not mean for it to take this long to update!** **But I am very impressed with how patient you all have been and want to thank you for it.**_

 ** _A special shout out to Guest reviewer who has been the most patient out of everyone here- this chapter is for you. :)_**

 ** _Disclaimer: I don't own this and blah blah blah and so on and so on... you get the idea._**

 ** _No, without further ado... chapter eight! :)_**

* * *

Tup was running, faster than he'd ever run in his life.

His shoes pounded into the pavement and his lungs screamed at him to stop and rest, but he couldn't because they would catch him.

He rounded the corner of a brick building and dashed into an nearby alley, ducking behind a dumpster.

He heard yelling as they came closer.

"I can't see him," Jay said.

"He probably doubled back," TJ said.

"Or he could be hiding you idiots!" Byron said.

"Search everywhere! He can't have gone far!" Brock said, sending a shiver up Tup's spine.

He froze, trying to calm his breathing and steady his heart.

"Jay, TJ, keep going and see if you can find where he went, Byron, you and I are going to try and flush him out."

"Sure thing, Brock," said TJ.

Tup heard two pairs of footsteps grow faint as they moved in the direction of his house.

"You sure he's hidin', Brock?" Byron asked.

"Of course I am you moron! That Freak knows he can't outrun us so he would have to find somewhere to lay low, now, quit asking stupid questions and start looking!" Brock snapped.

They moved away and Tup waited five more minutes before carefully getting up and moving towards the entrance to the alley. He peered around the corner, making sure the coast was clear before making his way out of the alley and towards his house.

He made it another two blocks went he ran into Jay and TJ... literally.

They had just scoped out the way to Tup's house and, since they didn't see him, had been making their way back to report to Brock.

Tup only paused long enough to see the surprise on their faces before turning and sprinting away, the teens shook themselves out of their stupor and ran after him shouting.

Tup ducked into another alleyway, looking over his shoulder as he did, but that brief second of inattention was all it took. He whipped his head around and had just enough time to register the outstretched arm at shoulder height before his shoulders and head were jerked back, sending him crashing to the ground.

Tup groaned as the world spun and felt someone grab his jacket before jerking him to his feet.

Jay and TJ held Tup between them.

"You made a mistake, Freak, and now you're going to pay for it," Brock said, cracking his knuckles. "Any last words?"

"Yeah, I'm amazed that you're still loyal to Trench even after he got his butt handed to him by a guy three years younger and 75 lbs. lighter," Tup said, sarcasm heavily lacing his voice.

There was no retort except for the fist that pounded into his face.

Tup had no idea how long they had him, having lost track of the number of times he'd been hit, before leaving him on the dirty floor of the alley. He lay there without moving for a long time shifting in and out of consciousness while thinking back on his life and how this day had started.

* * *

Tup was a pariah in his school.

He had no friends and was picked on by the resident bullies. Tup was used to it of course since the foster home he was staying in had several older boys who took out their frustrations on him. He'd been in the system since he was 8 after he had witnessed his mother, who was an only child with no parents, OD on Heroin.

Tup refused to talk about that day and very few people knew about it, of which he was glad, and every time a Shrink tried getting him to open up he shut down completely and they would declare him a lost cause.

Tup had long ago stopped showing emotion, having retreated into himself as a defense mechanism. But today his shell had finally cracked.

He had lost control.

And now he was paying for it.

* * *

It had been a typical Thursday at school, he went to his classes and between periods Aaron Trench and his gang of miscreants would corner him and slap him around.

The school had anti-bullying regulations of course, but no one ever bothered to follow them since everyone, including the teachers and principal were afraid of Aaron.

Aaron was larger than the average high school football player with a temper to match. He was the boss and didn't let anyone tell him what to do, whenever a teacher attempted to punished him he would leave a hole in the wall, every classroom had at least two since it only took new teachers a couple of incidents before they learned to leave him be.

He almost never sat completely through a class, often getting up with his friends to go to the back of the school and do drugs that his older brother would procure for him.

All in all, he was a problem no one wanted to deal with and anyone who tried ended up seriously hurt. Aaron wasn't known for pulling his punches.

"Where do you think you're going, Freak," Aaron said, grabbing the back of Tup's shirt and throwing him into the wall.

"To class," Tup said, keeping his gaze lowered.

He had learned that the best way to avoid injury was not to make eye contact or talk back when Aaron was talking.

"Oh really? You're going to class?" Aaron laughed, turning to look at his friends.

"Did you hear? The Freak says he has to go to class," he said, mock concern on his face for a second before morphing into an ugly expression of loathing.

"You have to go to class, huh? I don't give a **** if you have to go to class," he growled, shoving Tup again the wall.

"Do you know why you're here, Freak?" He asked before continuing. "Because you didn't pay my fee for walking the halls."

"There isn't a fee," Tup dared to say, only to gasp in pain a moment later when Aaron drove his fist into Tup's stomach, causing him to double over and gasp for air.

"Did I say you could speak, Freak?!" Aaron shouted. "If you speak out of turn again I will make you wish you'd never been born!"

He nodded his head in Tup's direction and one of the other boys pulled his lunch money out of his pocket, handing it to Aaron.

"See you later, Freak, you better hurry and get to class, you don't want to be late," he said smirking at him before turning and walking away.

After a few minutes Tup pulled himself to his feet and to his next class. The rest of the day went on as usual with Tup going to class and hiding in a janitorial closet to avoid Aaron in between the final periods.

The bell rang, signaling the end of school for the day and students filed into the hallway to grab their things before heading to the bus stop.

Tup placed his books in his locker and had turned to follow everyone else outside when he heard the familiar voice of Aaron and a strangled whimper following a moment later.

Curious, Tup followed the voice and turned the corner leading to an adjacent hallway.

Aaron had cornered the twin sisters Tiplar and Tiplee Mikkan. The girls had immigrated here with their mother from South Sudan after guerrilla fighters had attacked their village and killed their father, after that their mother immediately made arrangements for them to escape the country and a year later they were in America.

They had only been going to school for a few months before Aaron set his sights on them.

"...think you can just walk through my hallway without paying?" He demanded. The girls had been backed into a corner and Tiplar had pushed her younger sister behind her while Tiplee held her older sister's hand in a death grip, fear written all over her face.

"Leave us alone," Tiplar demanded, trying to sound brave.

"You aren't the one giving the orders here!" He shouted. "So shut up!"

He slapped Tiplar hard enough to knock her down.

"Sister!" Tiplee cried, trying to pull Tiplar to her feet.

"Hand over your money!" Aaron demanded.

Since the twins were new here they hadn't heard that Tup was someone to be avoided and would go out of their way to talk with him and help pick up his books when they were knocked out of his hands. They were literally the only ones in school who liked him and now they were in trouble.

Throwing away any caution and reservation he might have normally had Tup ran and shoved Aaron hard enough to knock him off balance, unfortunately two of his gang grabbed and steadied him before he hit the ground.

"Leave them alone!" Tup demanded.

Two more of Aaron's gang grabbed Tup's arms to hold him up.

"That was a stupid move, Freak!" Aaron growled and punched him twice in the face followed quickly by a punch to the stomach.

Tup felt dizzy and would have fallen if the two other boys hadn't been holding on.

"Did you really think you would be able to stop me!" Aaron shouted. "I own this school, Freak!"

He turned back to the girls, who were now standing terrified against the wall, and grabbed Tiplee by her shirt much to her sister's horror.

"Give me your money now!" He shouted in her face.

"Let her go!" Tiplar demanded, pulling on Aaron's arms, but he just backhanded her again.

Tiplee began to cry but was stopped when Aaron turned back to her, terror all over her face.

Her family had come to America to escape from people who did things like this, America was supposed to be safe.

Tup, still held by the arms, watched as Aaron backhanded Tiplar and held Tiplee by the shirt.

He saw red as he felt this uncharacteristic and frightening amount of rage come bubbling up from out of nowhere. Tup ripped his arms away from the other boys' grasps before landing a single solid punch in each of their faces, stunning them temporarily.

Aaron turned to look at Tup in surprise and shock. There was no emotion on the younger boy's face and nothing but rage in his eyes and for the first time ever Aaron was afraid. Tup had always been one to cave and back away from a fight or just do what other people said, him getting angry was like trying to baptize a cat... it's not gonna happen.

He had gone too far and now there was no escape. Tup charged Aaron and pried his hands off Tiplee's shirt and pushing Aaron away from the girls.

Aaron wheeled his arms, trying to regain his balance, but it was all pointless anyway. Tup, taking advantage of the larger boy's temporary weakness, charged again and aimed his punches towards his face and stomach.

The next thing Tup knew was that he was standing over the now unconscious Aaron Trench, his face was a bleeding mess and Tup could feel a painful throbbing in his hands with every beat of his heart. He looked down and saw that his hands were also a bleeding mess.

Tup looked around at the shocked faces of Aaron's gang and

the twins, who looked more horrified than shocked, who had been forgotten about during the fight.

"Oh, you're gonna pay for that, Freak," a boy named Brock said, glaring and cracking his knuckles.

"Tup, run!" Tiplee yelled.

Tup didn't argue, he turned and ran.

Tup felt his body jostling and heard what appeared to be voices.

"... gently now..."

"Watch his head..."

"... back seat... careful..."

He heard and felt a car moving, slowly opening his eyes he saw two identical people looking back at him with worry and causing him to become confused.

I must have hit my head harder than I thought, I'm seeing double, he thought to himself, but realized he must have said it out loud as well since he got an answer.

"You're not seeing double, Tup, it is I, Tiplar and my sister Tiplee," one said.

" _Jinsi alivyo, ni yeye macho?_ " A third person made themselves known. (Is he awake, how is he?)

" _Yeye ni macho, lakini si sana uratibu, Mama_ ," Tiplar replied to what sounded like a question. (He is awake, but not very coordinated, Mother.)

" _Awe na mshtuko wa ubongo_ ," Tiplee added. (He might have a concussion.)

Tup couldn't understand a word of what was being said, but he didn't care. His head was pounding and the twins' voices faded into nothingness as the dark claimed him once more.

* * *

 _ **The words in italics are Swahili.**_

 _ **As always, read and review, and thanks for reading. :)**_


	9. Chapter 9: Pranks and Arrivals

**_Once again, I apologize immensely for not posting any new chapters. I have almost no time to write anymore, but that will hopefully be rectified soon. To compensate for the extreme amount of time I'm posting a longer chapter twice as long as the longest one I've written previously._**

 ** _I hope you like it, and thanks for sticking with me. - Ahsoka1996_**

* * *

It was time. After many long hours of planning it was finally time.

Fives stood there, snickering quietly to himself, waiting for his victim to walk through the door, completely oblivious to what awaited them. There was a click as the lock disengaged and the soon to be victim, Laseema, walked through the door with three bags of groceries, flicking on the lights as she made her way to the island counter top.

This was it, he thought from his hiding spot behind the cabinets. Laseema place the groceries on the counter, grabbed the crackers and opened the main cupboard door...

... And screamed, dropping the crackers, and backing away from the now open cupboard.

Fives tried to keep his laughter under control, but failed miserably, bending over and holding his stomach he came out of his hiding place.

This turned out to be a big mistake.

The sound of someone yelling "Laseema!" was the only warning Fives had before Atin burst through the door and ran to his wife who grabbed his shirt tightly and pressed her head to his chest.

"Are you alright!" He demanded. She didn't respond, instead opting for a quick shake of the head and gestured wildly to the cupboard.

Still holding her Atin turned to look at the now open cupboard, his long white scar standing out obviously from his rapidly reddening face. There sitting in the cupboard was Fives' pet Python Krell, named after a previously abusive foster parent.

Fives froze as Atin turned towards him, fury on his face.

"Oh snap," he cursed before turning and taking off, Atin's angry voice floating along behind him.

"You flaming idiot! Just wait until I get my hands on you!" Atin roared.

Fives let out a very girly shriek as he felt a hand close around the back of his jacket. He shrugged it off, leaving it dangling in Atin's hands, and darted down the main hallway to the living room where Kal, Echo, Etain, Jaing, Fi, Rex, Darman, and Corr were.

Kal was sitting in his favorite recliner reading a book and sipping a glass of brandy, Jaing was working on what looked to be a destroyed computer hard drive, Fi and Rex were making a list of what equipment needed to be replaced, and Darman was sitting on the couch, Etain next to him, playing poker with Corr while Etain helped Echo out with his homework. Ordo was currently in town on business for Kal.

Fives dived behind the closest person, which happened to be Echo, startling all except Kal and Etain, who seemed to have a sixth sense about these kinds of things.

"Fives! What are you doing?!" Echo demanded.

"You need to save me, Atin's gone crazy!" Fives said, his eyes widened even more when he heard Atin yelling again.

"Get your butt over here right now, you little turd! When I catch you you're going to be sorry!"

"What did you do now?" Echo asked, resignation in his voice.

"Nothing, I swear... well, I maybe, perhaps, kind of, possibly, probably hid Krell in one of the kitchen cupboards for Laseema to find," Fives said sheepishly.

"You did what?!" Echo exclaimed.

Etain sighed and rubbed her face. "Fives, you know Laseema has a problem with snakes, and you also know how protective Atin is of her."

"Come on, it was a joke, Krell wouldn't have hurt her and Atin can't take a joke... Kal, help me out," Fives turned to Kal who hadn't closed his book despite the drama.

"You brought this on yourself, Fives, though, I'd have thought you'd learned a lesson from your previous encounters," Kal said, not looking up from his book. He was refering to a previous prank Fives at played at Laseema's expense involving dye and shampoo... neither Laseema nor Atin were amused with the outcome.

Fives desperately searched for help from anyone in the room, but didn't see anyone willing to lift a finger, so he looked to the one other person who might understand him.

"Fi, please, you prank everyone too, help me out here." Fives was almost begging now.

Fi sighed before turning to face Fives. "It's true that I'm a prankster Fives, but if there's one thing I know it's not to tease Atin's wife. He will not take it well. Sorry buddy, but you're on your own."

Fives turned to Kal once more, seeing his last remaining lifelines being cut one by one.

"Please, Kal..." he began but was cut off.

"There you are!" A voice growled. Fives snapped his head in the direction of the doorway and paled considerably at the sight of a very angry Atin.

"Kal, please do something, I'm too pretty to die young!" Fives all but wailed and Kal sighed.

"Atin..." Fives breathed a small sigh of relief, leave it up to Kal to have a heart... "don't damage him too badly, he's got chores and school in the morning," Fives paled even more, though he didn't know if it was because of Kal's words or the dangerously unfriendly grin crossing Atin's face.

"Sure thing, Kal," Atin said.

He mock lunged sending everyone, including Kal, into a flurry of laughs as Fives jumped and dashed out the door, almost running over a very surprised Walon Vau and his pet pit-bull, Lord Mirdalan/Mird.

"WhoopssorrySergeantVaucrazymadmanaftermegottarun!" Fives shouted in a rush as he zoomed by followed closely by a supposedly 'crazy madman' shouting about all the things he was going to do when he finally caught up to the troublemaker.

Vau walked into the living room, chuckling slightly, and approached Kal while holding out his arm.

"Let me guess, Fives bit off more than he could chew and is now paying for it," Vau said and laughed and Kal nodded, swallowing the last of his brandy before taking the offered arm and standing to greet the Sergeant.

"How are you, Walon?" Kal said.

"I'm well, I hear you're going to be getting some more guests," Walon said.

"Yeah, couple of severely troubled teens, one suicidal and another with extreme anger issues," Kal said as they walked towards the kitchen.

When they arrived Laseema was putting away the last of the groceries.

"Walon," she said with a smile. "It's good to see you, how are you doing?"

She embraced Vau before turning back to the groceries.

"I'm doing well, Mird is going to be a father soon," Vau stated proudly.

"Glad to hear it, when the puppies are born bring them on down, we could use one or two more around the ranch," Laseema said.

"Sure thing, Vau said, following Kal to the liquor cabinet in a side room. Only Kal, the Nulls, and Laseema had keys to the cabinet for security reasons.

"So, what brings you here? You aren't scheduled to visit us for another two weeks."

"You mean I can't just pop up unexpectedly and visit my surrogate nieces and nephews?" Vau said, Kal raised an eyebrow in disbelief while handing Vau a glass filled with Jack Daniel's

Vau held up his hands. "Alright, you caught me," he said, his expression becoming sorrowful, before swallowing the all contents of the glass at once. "It's Delta, they were in a Humvee and ran over an IED."

"How bad?" Kal asked, refilling Vau's glass.

"Boss and Fixer are fine, just some bruises and lacerations from glass and minor burns..." Vau trailed off.

"What about Sev and Scorch?" Kal pressed gently.

"Scorch was driving and Sev was riding shotgun, Sev's side went over the IED and was caught directly in the blast. The Humvee flipped over, Boss, Scorch, and Fixer managed to get out but Sev was trapped. Scorch went back for him just as the Humvee caught fire and managed to get him out before it exploded," Vau sighed and rubbed a hand over his face.

"Sev and Scorch were airlifted to HQ's Medical Center, Scorch sustained second and third degree burns on 98% of his arms, especially his hands, and 10% of his face. Sev however got the worst of it, he has a broken arm, a severe concussion, a broken collar bone, chipped vertebrae, third degree burns over his chest and legs, both his legs were broken in multiple places, and lacerations over 50% of his body. He's being discharged from service and sent back to Corrie Medical Center, Scorch will be accompanying him and stay just long enough to recover before being sent back.

"I thought that maybe you'd be willing to host them until they recover adequately enough to make their own way?" Vau asked.

Kal downed the rest of his glass and nodded. "Sure, Vau, it's the least I can do for them, I know that you raised and trained them, but I still see them as my boys as well."

Vau nodded and finished the rest of his glass before placing it in the sink. "Thanks, Kal, you don't know how much this means to me."

"Vau, you know you can count on me for anything. Laseema, could you come here please," Kal called.

"Yes, Kal, what is it?" Laseema said as she appeared in the doorway.

"Sev was injured overseas and is going to be needing medical attention, I need you to send a message to Mij asking him to come back to the ranch as soon as he's finished with his business?" He said and Laseema nodded.

"Sure thing, Kal, I'll have Etain and Fi ready the infirmary as well," she said.

"Thanks Las'ika," Kal said and she disappeared again.

"Atin's a really lucky young man to have a woman like that," Vau commented and Kal nodded.

"Yes he is, she's such a good girl, you wouldn't believe how she was when we first brought her here, she was so shy and flinched at every loud noise, when we rescued her Atin was the only man she would let get within five feet of her. She's grown so much since then," Kal said, thinking back to when they had brought home the scared Latina woman with a scarred chin who had been abused her whole time working at a sleazy nightclub called Qibbu's Hut.

The overweight owner owed Kal a lot of money and Kal had used that as a bargaining chip to free the young woman from what he felt was slavery. Laseema had opened up some time later saying that her family had sent her to America to help pay off a debt and that she tried to go back multiple times but her family just kept sending her back. Kal had become like the father she had never had and even more so when she had married Atin.

Kal walked Vau outside to his car. "So are you going to stay for dinner?" He asked, though he knew what the answer would be.

"Sorry, Kal, I can't, I've got some business in Corrie as well as making arrangements for Sev's transfer here," Vau said, opening the passenger door allowing Mird to jump in.

"Well, the offer's still on the table," Kal finished, grabbing Vau's outstretched arm and pulling him into a hug.

"I know, see you later," Vau climbed in, started the engine, and drove away, leaving a cloud of dust behind.

As Kal stood there watching him leave, he heard the cruch of footsteps on gravel as someone approached. He knew who it was before they reached him and didn't turn as he spoke.

"Did Mij respnd?" He asked.

"Yes, he says he'll be here by tomorrow evening so Laseema's preping his room, when is Sev coming?" Etain asked.

"He's being shipped back to Corrie Medical Center and then transfered here, so about four days, the hospital will be keeping him until he's stable," Kal replied.

"In the mean time everyone can prepare for our other guests, Ordo will be picking them up tomorrow evening," he turned to Etain and wrapped an arm around her shoulder, walking her back to the main building.

"You have the least threatening presence here so I'm going to need you to help the teens adjust properly to their new home," he finished.

"Sure thing Kal," she said, leaning her head against his shoulder.

* * *

"Ouch... warn me a little before you start pulling wires!" Anakin snapped at Dr. Nala Se as she jerked slightly on a loose wire inside his mechanical arm. Qui-Gon and Shmi had brought Anakin in for his monthly checkup early to make sure his prosthetic was working properly.

"My apologies, Anakin-San," the Japanese Biomechanical Engineer said, her voice smooth and apologetic. "The wire connecting the index finger to the central circuit board had come loose, I have reattached it, it was not my intention to cause discomfort."

She closed up the top panel and placed her tools to the side to be cleaned. "Wiggle your fingers for me, please," she said and Anakin obliged. There was no stiffness or whirring electronics as he did so and he smiled.

"Thanks, Dr Se," he said. "Now it hopefully won't get stuck again."

Two days ago Anakin had been tinkering with his '67 Mustang Impala when his mechanical arm suddenly froze up almost causing him to drop part of the engine he was working on. After a massive amount of tinkering he had managed to loosen it up a bit but it was still stiff, so Shmi and Qui-Gon arranged to see Dr Se.

Dr Se is the head of the Biomechanical Research Department at the Kaminoan Medical Institute of Genetics and Technology in Tipoca City, about 200 miles from Corrie.

Just then Senator Palpatine walked in, his bodyguards taking up positions outside the door to the room.

"Ah, Anakin, it's good to see you again, my boy, how are you," he said, smiling and shaking Anakin's good hand.

"Everything's fine, Senator, I had some minor malfunctions with my prosthetic, but Dr. Se had working them out," Anakin said.

Palpatine nodded then turned to Qui-Gon and Shmi, shaking each of their hands in turn.

"Thanks again for everything you do," Shmi said.

"Oh, I assure you Mrs. Skywalker, it is my pleasure," Palpatine said. "Though I wish I was here on a social visit, I'm really here to speak to Chief Jin."

"Oh, I hope it's nothing serious," Shmi said and Palpatine waved his hand dissmisively.

"It's nothing you should concern yourself with, just some added security measures," Palpatine said.

"Very well, Senator, shall we step outside?" Qui-Gon said.

"When the two of them were out of the room Palpatine turned to Qui-Gon.

"I'm afraid I have some bad news, it seems as though Sidious has made a move on the Crime Lord Jabba's territory," Palpatine said seriously.

"That isn't good," Qui-Gon rubbed the back of his neck. "That could start an all out war between the factions."

"That isn't the worst of it either, my sources tell me that Sidious has employed a mysterious hitman to take out Jabba and Jabba has retaliated by hiring Cad Bane for protection," Sidious finished.

"Do we know this hit-man's identity?" Qui-Gon asked.

"No, unfortunately not, though we do know he is a part of the Sith Order," Paplatine gravely said.

"Qui-Gon froze. "You mean Sidious has hired a hitman from the most notorious assassination organization in the world?!" Qui-Gon said, suprised.

"Yes, and my contact said he will contact us when he has more information," Palpatine said. "And I want you and your men prepared to make a move when that happens."

"Yes, Sir," Qui-Gon said.

"Thank you Chief Jin," Palpatine said, turning and walking away.

"Qui-Gon, is everything alright?" Shmi said, coming out of the room with Anakin, who was adjusting the sleeve of his shirt over his prosthetic.

"Yes, Dear, eveything's fine, want to get something to eat?" he replied.

"I'm game," Anakin said and his parents laughed.

"Of course you are," Shmi smiled while Qui-Gon ruffled his hair affectionately.

* * *

Tup was nervous, he had been taken by a social worker called Ms. Keller from the hospital after he had recovered to his current home where he found out he was being transferred to yet another foster home.

And he wasn't the only one, another kid he only knew as Tallisabeth would be going with him. The Ms. Keller escorted Tup to the airport where a girl was waiting. She had red hair, green eyes and freckles all over her face.

"Tup, I'd like you to meet Tallisabeth Enwandung-Esterhazy, she will be accomanying us to our destination, Tallisabeth, this is Tup," the Ms. Keller said omitting his last name, since Tup had gone into the system he had blatently refused to use his mother's last name. He saw her death through her selfishness as an abandonment of him.

Tup just nodded and sat down between Tallisabeth and Ms. Keller. At first he ignored her, but then he noticed she was wearing an over-sized sweater in the hot Arizona weather.

'Probably just a weirdo,' he thought.

Soon it was time to get on the plane and take off. Tup once again found himself seated between the girl and Ms. Keller.

"Hi, I'm Tup, but you probably already knew that," he said. She didn't look up or even acknowlege his presence, but Tup wanted somebody to talk to other than a social worker who didn't care what happened to them as long as she was paid. It was a ten hour flight from Phoenix to Corrie so he might as well make himself comfortable.

"... and that's why I'm being sent off again, what's your story?" He asked.

Tallisabeth didn't say anything and Tup huffed in frustration, it was going to be a long flight and he was just trying to make conversation. "Look, I understand if you don't feel comfortable talking to me, I really do, so if you don't I'll leave you alone."

Tup turned away and pulled out a well worn book, a copy of J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings The Fellowship of the Ring, it was his only possession from his life before, he had been six years old when he taught himself to read and had noticed the book in the trash, the front cover had been ripped of and on the ground outside the trash bin.

He had taken the book and, after stealing some superglue from a gas station, had glued the cover back on. He had read the book many times and knew parts of it by heart, his favorite part was the battle in the Mines of Moria but he was sad when Gandalf fell to his death, he had imagined that was what a father figure should have been like.

Tup was so engrossed with his book that he never noticed the hand reaching for him until he felt something gently take hold of his arm. Startled, he looked up and saw Tallisabeth looking at the book in his hand, she made a motion which said that she wanted to look at it, Tup was reluctant at first but carefully handed over the book.

Tallisabeth took it in her hands, in a surprisingly careful way, and opened up to a random page, reading a bit before flipping to another page and reading that. While she was preoccupied he noticed her right sleeve had shifted down enough to see the scars covering her arm.

He was shocked and reached for the sleeve only to have Tallisabeth jerk away from him, she quickly pulled the sleeve back into place and glared at Tup, he held his hands up in a gesture of surrender.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you," he mumbled, trying not to make eye contact. After a few minutes he felt the hand on his arm again, he looked up and saw Tallisabeth moving her hand.

She was gesturing to him and making the sign for 'OK' before moving on to pointing between the two of them. Realizing that she wasn't offended by his lack of courtesy he smiled and nodded and she nodded back, though without a smile.

Tup suddenly realized that he had yet to either hear her speak or smile at all. She handed back the book and reached for her own bag pulling out a larger book and handing it to him.

Tup took it, slightly puzzled until he read the cover. It was the complete works of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, and the Silmarillion. Before Tallisabeth had been taken away Rosalie gave her the book she had bought with the money she had been saving for Tallisabeth's present.

Tup looked up excitedly. "You like The Lord of the Rings?" he asked, Tallisabeth just nodded and gestured to it.

"You mean I can read it?" Tup couldn't believe it, he had only ever read the first book and had never been able to find copies of the other ones, people normally didn't just throw books away.

Tallisabeth nodded again and Tup smiled even bigger before opening the book.

Inside the front cover was a small message:

 _Dear Talli,_

 _I'm so sorry about what has happened, and I hope that you can forgive me for what was done to you. I know you'll say that it wasn't my fault, but I can't help but feel that it is. I hope you know that I love you and will still love you as long as I'm alive, no matter what._

 _I miss you very much._

 _Love, Rosalie_

Tup finished reading and guiltily looked up at Tallisabeth, but she wasn't paying attention to him anymore, so he turned to the first chapter of The Two Towers.

By the time they reached Corrie's airport Tup had finished the last of the LOtR trilogy and was made it a third of the way through The Hobbit before the two young teens had fallen asleep, Tallisabeth's head lolling onto Tup's shoulder.

The next thing either of them knew was the sound of the pilot's voice telling everyone that they were beginning their decent and should buckle up. The teens cooperated with the command and then put their respective books back into their backpacks.

Thirty minutes later they exited the aircraft and collected their luggage, one small suitcase apiece, before walking towards the exit.

"We will be meeting your driver shortly, make sure you have everything," she said crisply before walking away forcing Tup to hurry to catch up.

They made it to pickup and the social worker moved towards a man holding a sign that said 'Ms. Keller'. He saw them coming and held out a hand and shaking Ms. Keller's.

"Mr. Ordo Skirata, it's a pleasure to meet you," she said.

"The pleasure is mine, are these Tup and Tallisabeth?" he asked.

"Yes, they already have everything and this is a file with all the current information on them, I will be accompanying you to where they will be staying to do a final inspection," she said crisply, Ordo didn't like her at all, but Kal had said to behave so he nodded politely.

"Of course, Ma'am," he said before turning to the teens, offering a hand in greeting.

"Hey, I'm Ordo Skirata," he said.

Tup shook it, but when Ordo held it out to Tallisabeth she recoiled as if she had been burned and grabbed Tup's hand tightly. Ordo didn't look surprised but Tup certainly did, this was the first real physical contact she had made besides gently brushing his hand, and it felt as if she was afraid.

He looked at her face but she refused to make eye contact, instead opting to grip harder, what surprised Tup the most was that there was no other visible sign of emotion showing, not on her face nor in her body language.

He decided to reasure her a bit and squeezed her hand back, with that tiny gesture she relaxed her grip slightly. All this took place in around four seconds and Ms. Keller didn't seem to have noticed.

'Not suprising,' he thought. Even though she hadn't noticed, Ordo most certainly had. Going by the slight tension in the girl's shoulders and her death grip on Tup's hand Ordo figured that she had probably been abused at some stage in her life for an extended period of time, the biggest clue to him was the fact that she had gripped the younger boy's hand and almost noticeably leaned away from Ordo.

"Alright, let's head over to the van and load up your bags, is this everything?" he asked, gesturing to the single suitcases and backpacks each of them had. Tup nodded but Tallisabeth didn't respond at all.

"Yes," Ms. Keller said, shouldering her own suitcase. Ordo nodded and gestured for them to follow, he lead them to a white 15 passenger van. Once everyone was situated; Ordo was driving, Ms. Keller rode shotgun, and the teens occupied the seat directly behind the adults.

Ordo pulled out of the airport parking lot and Tup had the feeling he wouldn't be seeing it again for a long time, the most suprising factor, of course, was that Tallisabeth still hadn't released his hand.

To his surprise though they drove past the turnoff for Corrie and straight into the country. 45 minutes, and many winding roads, later they drove through a gate with a sign reading "Kyrimorut" and ten minutes after that they pulled up to what appeared to be a ranch house.

The whole drive there was silent, the teens not willing to speak, Ms. Keller was on her phone texting, and Ordo was mulling over the girls behavior.

The driveway was like a large cul-de-sac with several buildings around it including a large one that looked like the main building. Standing just in front of the larger building was a small group of people.

There was an older man with gray hair and what looked to be a tough exterior, two women; one that looked Latino and another with red hair, green eyes, and was heavily pregnant, and two other men who each stood next to the women.

The van pulled to a stop and the older man approached. Ordo climbed out of the van and gave the older man a back-slapping hug before moving towards the back of the van where the suitcases were.

Ms. Keller climbed out of the car and opened the side doors, allowing the teens to climb out. Kal approached the woman and held out a hand in greeting.

"Ms. Keller I presume," he said more than asked and she nodded.

"Let's just make one thing clear here, Mr. Skirata..."

"Kal, you can call me Kal," he interrupted.

She just gave him a fake smile before continuing on.

"... Mr. Skirata, I'm here only to make sure the children arrive safely and do a final inspection of the premises, if I find anything in question in will go into my report to my superiors and go into your records as a foster parent, are we clear?" She asked, a fake smile plastered onto her face.

Kal just smiled and nodded. "Crystal."

"Good, now these are Tallisabeth Enwandung- Esterhazy and Tup," she said gesturing the teens forward.

"No last name for Tup?" Kal asked.

Ms. Keller shook her head. "He prefers that his last name not be used," she supplied and Kal nodded in acceptance.

"Well, Tup and Tallisabeth, welcome to Kyrimorut or the Homestead, I hope that you guys will find your stay here a pleasant experience. Etain, could you show each of them to their rooms?"

"Sure, Kal, come on guys," Etain said collecting the teens and directing them into the main building, Darmon following behind with their bags.

"After your inspection, you're more than welcome to stay the night," Kal offered but the woman shook her head, a slight sneer on her face.

"No thank you, Social Services has already reserved a room for me at the Ramada Inn in Corrie, I shall require transportation back however," Ms. Keller supplied.

"Of course, Ordo can take you to Corrie," Kal agreed, ignoring Ordo rolling his eyes behind the woman's back.

"Very well, let's begin, shall we?" She said then moved away without another word.

Kal followed behind and Ordo fell into step next to him, it wasn't that difficult though since Kal stubbornly refused to get his ankle fixed after someone shot clean through it during Kal's older days as a mercenary and soldier.

"Be nice, Ordo," Kal said, guessing the younger man's thoughts. "We don't have to like her, we just have to cooperate."

"Yes, Kal," Ordo said before chuckling slightly.

"What?" Kal asked.

"I'm just thinking about how she'll react to Fives' latest prank," he said and the two of them chuckled together as they entered the building.

* * *

 ** _A thousand apologies for any grammatical mistakes, I tried to get them all, but if I didn't let me know so I can fix them._**

 ** _Thanks for reading, reviews would be awesome. Ciao for now! ;)_**


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